As the only satellite radio fan here at CrunchGear, I feel it’s my duty to review the year that was and point out some of the events that made the medium such a joy. This isn’t a typical “Top 10 Movies” snoozefest, but rather an illustration of what makes satellite radio inherently superior to regular, terrestrial radio (provided you don’t mind a nominal monthly fee).

Please note that this list isn’t to be ranked, but seen as a sum total “these were the best moments of the year, in my [worthless] opinion.”

With that…

1. The Back to the Future Secret Show on XM. If any broadcast showed the power of satellite radio it was this one. Hosted by the Opie and Anthony staff (minus Opie), they narrated the classic movie Back to the Future live on the air, riffing on the abject corruption of Mayor Goldie Wilson, the awkwardness of having your high school-age mother hit on you in the past (even though you’re from the future and know she’s your mother) and just how big a creep the Doc is. I could have done without Sam’s last 100 examples of “foreshadowing,” however.

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Following the merger, XM content has made its way to Sirius-branded radios. This photo shows XM’s Opie and Anthony playing on a Sirius radio, on channel 197, and Howard Stern on an XM radio.

Yeah, it’s weird.

Possibly their worst photo ever, and one that’s several years old

Mel Karmazin, the CEO of Sirius XM Radio, was just on the Opie and Anthony show

Karmazin also said that he didn't know if Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez (another fine radio program heard on XM channel 202, noon to 3pm) alone constitute a channel. So one would think he has some changes in mind as far as that goes. That could mean moving them to a new channel, or bringing additional talent to 202 to flesh out the programming. Jim Brewer would feel right at home, right?

That was pretty much the gist of it. It sounds as if Opie and Anthony are more than welcome on Sirius XM Radio, possibly, maybe having to give up on terrestrial radio in the process.

CBS, you probably already know, has a wonderful, free application for the iPhone on the Apple App Store. Terrestrial radio will have to continue to innovate along those lines if it wants to compete in the current radio climate, where everyone has every song they’d ever want on their iPod or cellphone, or can tune into Internet radio using programs like Pandora. That, and now a combined satellite radio company less concerned with making the other guy look bad, and more concerned with convincing people to leave commercial-laden terrestrial radio once and for all. (Karmazin also expressed his dislike for satellite radio music channels with commercials, so expert moves in that direction, too.)

Interesting times to be a radio fan, to be sure.

Opie and Anthony (Possibly NSFW)

A follow-up to yesterday’s “What of O&A?” post, Sirius XM Radio CEO Mel Karmazin is slated to appear on the show during the 9am hour today.

Opie and Anthony fans know that Karmazin has always been a “Howard Stern guy,” so this should make for good radio. Karmazin is similarly scheduled to be on Howard Stern, if you’re so inclined to seek out that audio.

And to the paranoid fans: if O&A were as vital to XM’s success as we’ve been led to believe, why wouldn’t Karmazin renew their contracts? Surely personal bad blood shouldn’t get in the way of maximizing shareholder value, right?

via Orbitcast

Following the approval [PDF] of the XM-Sirius merger (read: buyout), we can now focus on some of the specifics of the deal, fallout, and all sorts of post-merger hysterics. The first order of business: what happens to Opie and Anthony, of which I’ve been a fan since their WNEW days?

Their contract with XM expires on October 1, but, according to what they’ve said on the show, XM has yet to approach them about a renewal. That may well have been the fault of the merger, but now is when people will speculate for fun. Copy-paste, BCC, etc.

Mel Karmazin, slated to be the combined company’s CEO, has long said that he doesn’t like the idea of sharing content between satellite radio and terrestrial radio. Opie and Anthony can currently be heard on terrestrial radio in New York, Boston, Cleveland and other cities.

To uncertainty!

via Orbitcast

We’ll all be dead before XM and Sirius merge, but the two companies would like the whole wide world (or whoever reads PR Newswire) to know how they think they’ll end up financially once they’re one company. (What an awfully constructed sentence.) The headline here is the combined company will have positive cash flow in 2009.

They did re-state that, technically, Sirius will be taking over the assets of XM.

So, pretty boring financials that might please Wall Street, but we couldn’t really give a toss about. I’d like to know what sort of “clerical error” led to XM not paying Opie & Anthony for the past two months.

Dr. Michio Kaku—yes, he has a MySpace—world-renowned physicist and, as Peter put it, a “smart mofo,” was on the Opie & Anthony Show yesterday (you can grab it off Audible.com here) discussing all sorts of things that made me feel like to total idiot. Whether or not there’s life on other planets (Kaku says yes. As to why we haven’t been visited by other life forms yet, he answered, Do you walk down a hill and talk to an ant hill? Earth isn’t all that interesting when you think about it on a cosmic scale), how real science fiction movies are, and time travel. That’s what concerns us here.

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I completely forgot to mention this the other day: now that XM is in the podcast business, it has started a promotion that gives away two weeks of streaming XM Satellite Radio. Yes, two free weeks of XM, complete with specialty channels like The Virus and that Oprah one. I hear XM is thinking about changing the name of the MLB channel to “Steroids: Everyone uses ‘em.”

So yeah, two weeks of free XM. If you’ve ever signed up for one of these free promotions in the past, you may have to register with a diferent e-mail address than you did last time.

Free XM Trial [XM Satellite Radio]

I’m gonna be paying closer attention to satellite radio from now on, not just because the bosses told me to, but because the proposed merger is the defining moment of our times. It’s like the moon landing.

XM is now in the podcasting game. The satellite radio company has created several podcasts, many of which are exclusives. Right now, you’ll find podcasts ranging from sports talk like that James Carville show, XM Artist Confidential and, my personal favorite, animated clips from the Opie & Anthony show. Basically, someone takes stories told on the air and animates them. It’s funnier than it sounds, believe me.

The podcasts are free for now, so be sure to check ‘em out of you have the time.

And to the O&A fans in the house, I didn’t like Roland’s favorite movie of the year, “Once“… I loved it! (That’s not a joke, by the way.)

XM is Podcasting: Select shows now on iTunes [Orbitcast]

XM Podcasts [XM]

Remember the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest? It’s coming back, sort of, thanks to Opie and Anthony. Right now, we only know that it’ll involve lots of water and the winning of a still hard to find Wii. This story is developing as we speak (that is, they just announced it on their FreeFM show), so be gentle if the information is still a little raw.

But kudos to the Opie & Anthony show. I’m sure they’ll create innumerable new fans by doing this.

Opie and Anthony